


Battle Scars

by axolotlnerd-campcamp (axolotlNerd)



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: As in max straight up punches some chick in the face, Bullying, Fights, Gen, Kids are all 12-13, Middle School, Tags Are Hard, Thanks MAX, rated for language, then gets his ass served to him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 03:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12203190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axolotlNerd/pseuds/axolotlnerd-campcamp
Summary: Max and Neil have noticed Nikki's change of attitude, and are determined to do something about it.





	Battle Scars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MicrosuedeMouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MicrosuedeMouse/gifts).



Nikki never minded the bruises. Everyone knew that. “Battle scars," She'd call them. And Max and Neil never asked. They had no reason too, if she was so adamant about not hiding them. They never asked where she got them, either. But with Nikki, who knew? She was always getting hurt one way or another, whether it was her getting too excited on the soccer field or being too excited to climb up that one tree in the courtyard.

They didn't see the reality of it, though. Neil had begun to suspect something was wrong when Nikki's grades dropped, mainly her participation grades. None of the trio were in the same classes, other than lunch and science, unfortunately for Neil. But Neil had seen her behaviour change too.

Max shrugged it off. "It's probably just all that emotional bullshit that comes with puberty," He'd told himself. He knew, though. Some part of him could tell that something was wrong, it put a sad twist in his stomach each time he thought about it.

Both of the boys had done their best to shrug it off. But they wanted to help their friend, who seemed to be getting increasingly more and more quiet as the days passed.

 

It was a cold January in New York City, and they'd all like to meet up at Max's house. Mainly because Max's foster parent, David, would leave them alone if he knew they were studying. Which they did, about 30 percent of the time David thought they were..

Neil brought is up when he saw Nikki staring into empty space, tapping the eraser of her pencil on her homework page.

"Hey, you need help with that?" He asked kindly, gesturing to the math sheet Nikki had in front of her. She shrugged.

"I dunno. Can you just check to make sure I'm doing it right?" She asked, looking back at the paper. Neil hummed affirmation and scooted over, looking over the page and the work she had done.

"Yeah, this is good. You only have a few problems left, once you're done we can all play some Mario Party. Yeah?" He offered. Max and Neil had finished their homework a while ago, but Nikki seemed hesitant.

"Yeah. Can you just- Just watch and make sure it's right?"

Neil agreed to it quickly, but it was Max who was passively watching who saw how out of character this was. Nikki was usually sure of everything she did, especially homework. This type of nervousness and perfectionist attitude was odd for her.

He watched as Nikki's eyebrows furrowed, doing the problem with ease. Neil explained to her that she was doing it fine, but she still wasn't sure. She had to be doing something wrong.

But Max knew. He'd seen this before, and he'd be damned if he saw it again.

 

Stalking wasn't the right word for it. They were just... Keeping an eye on her. Taking routes to their classes just in the hopes of seeing the green-haired girl on her's. And it's not like they weren't doing it without reason. After that day at Max's, he was insistent that something was up. Neil didn't get it, but Max had this feeling that he just knew.

So he'd peek into her classes, look at her in the door's window and try to catch something. When Nikki saw him standing there, he'd make some stupid face to make her laugh or flip off the teacher while she wasn't looking. And it made her look happier than her normal, apathetic look in class.

It was small when he first caught it, peering into the classroom once again, not caring that he'd get scolded for this long of a "bathroom" break. One of the girls who was sitting behind her, a tall and thin girl with straightened blonde hair throwing a piece of crumpled paper to the back of Nikki's head.

She reacted with nothing but a flinch, brushing the back of her head to make sure the paper wasn't sticking to her hair. She didn't turn back to the girls behind her, talking in hushed whispers. But from where Max could see on the face that was hunched over her notebook, she looked miserable.

Neil caught the thing they needed to see. He was half-following Nikki as she walked her way to English, when the tall blonde girl calmly stuck her leg out to watch Nikki stumble over it. She caught herself fortunately, but the girl still snickered as Nikki walked away, speeding up her pace.

It was so childish, so immature. Like something you'd see a fourth grader do to the younger kids. But Neil felt anger and sympathy in his stomach as he watched his green-haired friend walk adamantly away.

Neil told Max what he saw, texting him when class started. He explained what happened, which resulted in Max sending his normal all-caps enraged cursing.

 

**> I KNEW THOSE BASTARDS WERE UP TO SOMETHING**

 

**> GOD FUCKING DAMMIT THATS SO STUPID**

 

**> WHY WOULD ANYONE EVEN DO THAT I DON'T GET IT**

 

**> WE'RE NOT IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ANYMORE JESUS FUCKING CHRIST**

 

Neil made sure to hold his phone in his pocket to hide the unrelenting vibration of notifications.

 

Max made some plan to follow Nikki on her way to soccer. Neil had felt uncomfortable about the idea, arguing against it the whole day.

"I don't know, Max, what if Nikki gets mad about us intervening? I know what it's like, and she might feel weird about us getting in the way of her social life-" Neil rambled before Max cut him off, a fierce and ready look on his face.

"No! I'm not just going to watch this, it's stupid and childish and we've got to do something about it! She's our friend." He explained. Neil sighed, pulling his backpack higher on his shoulders.

"Fine. Let's go."

They walked down the halls, Max leading the way as they followed Nikki's normal route to the field. Turning a corner, they saw Nikki fiddling with the dials of her locker as the blonde girl stood over her, talking more _at_ her than _to_ her.

Max started rushing down the hall. Neil almost stopped him before he saw the girl shove Nikki, taking her by surprise and sending her books flying onto the ground. She landed on her bottom, looking up at the vicious girl who stood above her.

"Aw, look, she's gonna start crying! Poor little baby's gonna go crying home to mama, because some school girls were mean to her and her _sensitive wittle feewings_ are hurt," The blonde said, snickering.

Nikki looked up at her, a mixture of miserable sadness and pure anger on her face as she spoke. "Why are you doing this?" She asked adamantly, pulling herself off the ground in a feeble attempt to get at eye level with the girl. She shoved Nikki back down, harder this time.

"Because you're a punk-ass little girl who thinks she's better than everyone else because she likes going outside! No one thinks it's cool, stop acting like you are!" She said. Nikki was on the verge of tears.

"Look out, bitch!" Max yelled as he launched himself into the scene, slamming his fist into the girl's face. She shrieked in surprise. Neil was taken by surprise too - he'd heard of Max getting in fights before, but he'd never actually seen him angry enough to hurt someone like this.

Neil sook himself out of it, running up to Nikki who was staring up at Max with shock. "Come on, Nik," He started, offering a hand up to the fallen girl. She looked over to him, somewhat confused.

"But, what about-"

"Max'll be fine, we need an alibi, let's go!" He said quickly. Nikki stood up, completely abandoning her scattered papers and favoring leaving with Neil. Max could be heard behind them.

"You wanna go, bitch? I'll fucking go!" He sounded so angry, Nikki almost wanted to laugh. She walked out the doors with Neil wrapping his arm on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He asked as they escaped into the frigid winter air.

"Yeah, thanks to you two. How'd you even…?”  She trailed of, making a vague gesture as she did. Neil shrugged.

"Max had some idea. I don't know how, but after that he started keeping an eye on you, and saw her and… The rest is history." He laughed, sitting down on a grassy spot outside. Nikki smiled at him.

"Wow. Thanks, I guess." She said, sitting down with him. She leaned back, letting her blue-green curls rest in the grass as she closed her eyes. Neil laid down with her, letting himself for once relax in the smell of nature.

Nikki took a moment to appreciate the smell of freshly-cut grass, smiling contently and letting herself fall half-asleep. Neil stayed quiet, enjoying how content his friend looked in the grass next to him.

After so long, footsteps were heard near them, making Nikki open her eyes and look up. "Whoa!" She exclaimed, bolting up at the sight, Neil looked over too, seeing Max standing next to where they were sitting.

He had a wide and content smile on his face as he held a hand in his hair, half-nursing his new black eye. The sleeves of his hoodie had been rolled up, likely when he was getting ready to fight the bully, but not his elbows were scraped and his knuckles bruised.

"Jesus Christ, Max, what happened to you?!" Neil exclaimed, fretting over his friend's bleeding elbows. "These could get infected, I think I have-"

"Calm your tits, Neil." Max said, still smiling as he sat down in the grass.

"Tell us everything! Did you knock out one of her teeth?" Nikki asked, suddenly back to her bright and childish self. Neil felt better seeing that.

"Oh, I wish! You should have seen her, she was _livid,"_ He started. Nikki sat back down, looking up at Max with wonder in her eyes as he described the fight, how the girl at one point threw him to the ground by his hair but he dragged her down with him, and how he slapped her across the face so hard the whole school probably heard it. Neil reluctantly found himself laughing at the morbid jokes max made.

"A teacher caught us, though. I have detention every day next week." Max said. He still smiled.

"And Jenny?" Nikki asked, and Max assumed she meant the blonde bully.

"Nothing. Racist-ass old fart," He scowled.

"Fuck that shit!" Nikki said abruptly. Neil was startled by her bluntness. "Me and Neil'll stage a breakout for you, first thing Monday." She said.

"Woah, woah, woah," Neil started. "Why me? Why do I have to break Max out of detention for beating up some prissy little girl?"

"Too late, science boy, if I'm going down you have to, too." Max said.

"Be honest, do you really want to miss something as exciting as this?" Nikki asked Neil. Her pink eyes glittered in the sunlight she sat kneeling in, eyes bright and vivid with excitement and joy. Neil had to admit, he liked her better like this than the doubtful girl he'd seen only a few weeks ago.

He sighed. "Fine." Nikki cheered in response.

"Okay, I got a soccer game here and I can't miss it. You guys coming?" She asked. Max and Neil happily said yes, watching as she waved a "see you there" before running to the track.

 

As it turns out, trying to break a student out of detention just results in more detention. Neil was grumpy at first, but at seeing Nikki's simple joy at having her legs kicked up on the desk, occasionally sending a small glare to the teacher...

This was fine with him, he decided.

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with some headcanons and shared them with MicrosuedeMouse, then realized _I have the power to make this into a story_ so I did. Hope you guys like it!


End file.
